Electric-powered vehicles have plenty of range for most usage
By Lethbridge Herald on February 2, 2024.
Editor:
There have been a lot of attacks on EVs lately by prominent and powerful people in Alberta. Claims have been made that EVs don’t work in places like Lethbridge and the surrounding rural area. As a local EV owner, I would like to point out that, contrary to these claims, EVs can work very well.
I have been driving EVs for 13 years now, hybrids for 10 and a fully electric car for the last three years. The average electric vehicle range has reached a point where I was happy to own one. In the summer, I can reach Red Deer before needing to refuel. Even at -30C, I can still reach Calgary, which is fine for me. No, I’ve never been stranded. I haven’t run out of fuel since I was 16 by the simple precaution of looking at the fuel gauge. Charging infrastructure in southern Alberta is actually very robust, thanks to some local visionaries who proactively began installing chargers a few years ago. We are ahead of many other regions in this respect.
Batteries typically last the life of the vehicle and can be repurposed or recycled. Maintenance is much less when you have an engine with one moving part. The cost of home charging is minimal, I don’t see an impact on my utility bill any more than I do from drying a load of laundry. The savings from no longer buying gas, especially when you have a long commute, are tremendous.
There are some situations where an EV would not be the best solution. If you’re commonly towing things or you take many long trips in the winter, for example. However, for me the EV has been a wonderfully superior technology. We’ve gone on many long drives across Canada and plan to do many more. To see powerful people trying to deny this technology to Canadians, for reasons that might have more to do with political donations than with the benefits to Albertans, is disappointing indeed.
Tom Moffatt
Lethbridge
8-7
Yep all is cool Tom until its 35 below and you’re lined up at charging stations with 50 others while AESO is telling you to not charge your car. Reliable occasionally, Have you done the 30 below stint across the prairies yet.
Why don’t you try owning one of these things before you pigeonhole it?
Your comments are useless in this regard.
China is on its way to dominating the EV market according Elon Mush. He believes China will obliterate other countries’ EV markets.
Much of the world is not set up and will not be ready by 2035 to have the high volume of EV’s charging and in winter in Alberta, recharging must be done 30-50% more, and when temps are minus 40 degrees, recharging takes longer. A new release states that the guardrails on highways are not strong enough across most of the country to withstand the heavier EV’s which are 20%-50% heavier than their normal vehicles.
I still believe they rushed this too fast and we will have another propane powered vehicle fiasco.
Toyota has been fast tracking hydrogen powered vehicles, knowing the many countries will not have the ability to provide charging stations for small villages and back country for many years. It is impressive what Toyota is doing and I wish them success! Hydrogen is much more compatible in winter and wet conditions than EV’s.
https://www.topspeed.com/toyotas-hydrogen-combustion-engine-has-the-potential-to-make-evs-obsolete/#introducing-the-corolla-cross-h2-concept
What you say is true. Volvo just turned over its Polestar production to a company called Geely. Guess who owns that, China. Did some numbers as I saw a similar report about EV’s ploughing thru guardrails or jumping right over them. Here are some numbers
Ford F-150 ICE vehicle. 1824 kg to 2274 kg. 4012 lbs – 5002 lbs
Ford F-1 150 Lightning EV. 2728 kg to 3127 kg. 6001 lbs – 6879 lbs.
Head on with a lightning it will be certain death.
Weighs 1800 – 1900 lbs more than an ICE F-150.
Road damage, tire wear and insurance costs and the cost of vehicle approaching or over 6 figures are considerations, NO wonder Ford is scaling back production and returning to ICE Broncos.
15.00 a charge road tax and 16 dollars a tire in environment charges. Major destruction of roads and a major polluter of waste.
Comparing the weight of vehicles for head-on collisions. What a STUPID spin! The comic relief is back!
fine points.
lumpy, with regard to reply, the head on concern is less the issue with regard to the points made about the real matter at hand.
Tom: what we did not read was the environmental cost of producing, operating, on electricity, road tax, price of electricity total cost of one of your long road trips.. Do you have a special EV charging station at your house? What price of electricity?
Snowman : what we did not read was the environmental cost of producing, operating oil & gas, road tax, price of oil and gas total cost of one of your long road trips.. Do you have a special gas station at your house? What price of gas?
So while seniors aren’t willing to accept change our young people are getting involved from what we are told. While seniors claim that it doesn’t work in cold weather they told us they were using electric snow mobiles in Norway without a problem, when we were there a few years ago. One article I read pointed out that they are working on a battery that will last for 1,000 km and that will help. For all the driving my senior friends and I do an electric car would work fine for us and those that have one state they saved a lot of money, like Tom states.
Yes, Fedup, they think it all grinds to a halt. The future is devolving thanks to these clowns.
What my friends and I see is Danielle Smith deliberately stopping the expansion of green energy in Alberta to try to get even with Trudeau and putting this province so far behind when all you can buy is electric vehicles we won’t be ready. Add that to her wasting $75 million of taxpayers money on buying children’s pain medication from Turkey that’s been proven dangerous and Albertans are stuck with it. Once again trying to out smart Trudeau has cost Albertans millions and billions with the lose of the Carbon Tax, hasn’t it?
THE NEXT ACT WILL BE TO DROP ALL GAS LAWNMOWERS,SNOW BLOWERS ETC WHATEVER
Oh look..an ‘all caps’ whiner!
Hey, those small engines are by scale the worst polluters out there!
That’s what is happening in Europe so you know it will here. While travelling Europe a few years ago I really had my eyes opened and have since had coffee with a guy from Sweden and he was shocked by the lack of concern for not getting ready for the electric age as he called it.